White refuses to say if he believes Garda Commissioner was fired

One of the candidates for the Labour leadership is refusing to state publicly if he believes the Garda Commissioner was fired.

In a letter to party members, Alex White said that as leader he "would not stand over a position where the Taoiseach looks to fire" the Garda Commissioner without calling the Labour leader.

He also said Labour would not stay in the coalition "at any cost".

Despite questions from reporters to state if he believed the former Commissioner was sacked by Enda Kenny this morning, Alex White refused to do so.

"The point I was making was that in circumstances where critically important decisions are being made in government - particularly of the nature of that particular decision - that there should never be any question that the leader of the partner party in government, in this case the Labour Party (and) the Tánaiste, would be exclude from such decisions," he said.